Episode #236 – His Burden Is Light

(M) Actually it’s, He’s after setting us free. (J) Hmhmm. (M) He’s not after our laws; He’s after our bondage that we put ourselves under the law. Yesterday He showed me something. I was just working very hard, and I just sort of was talking to Him as I was working, and He was talking to me. And I said, “Lord, this is so frustrating.” And He said… I said, “Why?” He said, “My burden is light, your burden is heavy.” (J) Umhmm. (M) And that’s one of my life-long scriptures, in Matthew eleven, “Come unto Me all you who labor and are heavy-laden, and I’ll give you rest.” (J) Hmhmm. (M) “Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly hearted, and you will find rest for your souls.” Amplified is just fabulous, but. So I thought oh, ok, so I’ve taken this on as my burden. And I realized I had taken on a number of responsibilities that God has given me, I’d taken them on my shoulders, and was asking Him to help me rather than giving Him the burden. (J) Literally, things that you were responsible for and had to do. (M) Yeah, right. And they’re huge. It seems to get bigger. And I’m utterly overwhelmed by the responsibilities that He’s asked of me. And I know well ‘the exchanged life’, John. I know well that He does, He performs; I’ve taught it and taught it. But this, somehow this, this, the bigger the responsibility, you have to learn the basics all over again. The bigger the pressure, you have to learn the basics all over again. I guess that’s… I don’t, that’s an apology for where I’m going to go, (Martha laughs) because, literally, my shoulders were hurting. (J) Wow. (M) And so, I went with Him. Last night and this morning I spent a lot of time with Him, and I started searching into this. Once again, John, so many things are linked to the law. The context of this Matthew eleven has to do with the legalist’s. And Jesus saying, “I thank you Father that you reveal this to the children. You’ve hidden it from the wise and intelligent and You’ve given it to babes.” And what He’s given is the knowledge of Christ. That’s what He’s given. So this whole chapter really is about being a child. And I hadn’t seen that before; that this particular chapter was about being a child. A child has no laws for one thing. They have a standard given them by the parents. The parents draw the line. It’s similar, if you will, a weak illustration, to being led of the Spirit. We don’t know what’s right or wrong. (J) Hmhmm. (M) A child doesn’t know what’s right or wrong. The parent draws the line. And that’s the role of the Spirit. (J) And has to reaffirm the line, all the time. (M) Yes, right. (J) Over and over. (M) Oh there you… Yes, yes, he does. (J) It’s not like a child, you’re going to tell a child once not to do something, and then that’s, that’s it. No, you’re going to train that child for a while. (M) And how does that apply to us as adults that we have to be… (J) We have to be trained and taught and over and over and over again. (M) There’re certain basics. (J) Hmhmm. (M) The basic is that Christ is to perform it. (J) And we’ll always have to be reminded of that, because we always stand up and think we can do it. (M) Hmhmm. Yeah. And, but Jesus said, “Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavey-laden, and My burden is light.” Well those terms relate to the law as it’s described in other places. He said to the Pharisee’s, you put burdens on people, and you don’t lift a finger to help carry them. (J) Hmhmm. (M) So He’s… The commentary, an excellent commentary, pointed this out to me. I didn’t know. I didn’t understand that when He says, “Come unto Me all you who are weary and heavy-laden”, that they were weary and heavy-laden under the yoke of the law. And He says, “come to Me and I’ll give you rest”, but further, “take My yoke upon you, and you’ll find rest to your souls.” And the Amplified goes on to the “pleasantness and delight”, and then He says, “My burden is light and my yoke is easy”. And I remember… (J) It’s, you know something? That’s so funny, because it’s easy and light when you allow Him to carry it. But when we take it up as our responsibility, we buckle underneath it. (M) Exactly. That is precisely, beautifully put. Yes. We cannot carry the burden that He gives us. And I’ve taught it for forty years, that if you take up your responsibility, then He can carry it. (J) Hmm. (M) Many times, there are two kinds of people, I believe; those who are responsible, and those who are not responsible. So in this, responsibility is given me; I had taken it up, but I hadn’t released it to Him. (J) How many people are there out there that believe that, you know, that “Your yoke is easy and Your burden is light,” is the fact that He doesn’t give you anything that’s too heavy for you. (M) (Martha laughs…) Oh, I’m laughing. I could laugh hysterically over that. And I’ve always said that’s a myth. He does give you more than you can carry, so that He can carry you. And… (J) That’s huge. Let’s put underlining, italicized bolding that, because I’ve never heard that, personally. I’ve never heard that preached that… I’ve heard it, ‘He’s not going to give you more than you can handle’. I’ve heard that, hmhmm. (M) Oh. What blasphemy. (J) I’ve heard that over and over and over again. (M) I have too. (J) But I’ve never heard that the reason why the yoke is easy and the burden is light is because of the fact that He is the One that’s going to carry it in you, as you. I mean that’s huge. (M) Yeah. (J) Have, have you personally heard it preached? (M) No. But I’ve been taught it. (J) I’m sorry, that’s huge. (M) It is. It is. Can you find life that has lived under that? That you’ve never been given more than you could take? I don’t know any life. (J) No, it, it’s all… (M) It wouldn’t be that easy. (J) No, and what it does is, it puts guilt and condemnation on people, because they feel like, oh well, I’m not living the faith, I’m not walking the walk, I’m not talking the talk, I’m not doing it. And somehow I’m the failure in this deal. (M) Hmhm. My failure is to not relinquish, and come under His yoke. (J) What a ploy of the enemy though, to cause you to be like, oh you stupid, you can’t do it again, see, look, just a failure is what you are. Well, yeah, I am, because I’m not supposed to do this. But that is huge. I’m sorry, that’s huge. (M) It also would make a person bitter with God. (J) Absolutely. Because you would turn around, and you would believe He’s not a good God, because He’s put too much on you, and He promised that He wouldn’t do that. (M) It’s not in the scriptures, is it? (Martha laughs) You will have tribulation is what I read. You know, John, there’s a whole lot. There’s another heresy out; I consider it a heresy, “What would Jesus do”. (John laughs.) With the arrogant presumption that we would know? He was always surprising, He never did what you expected Him to do, He wasn’t predictable. But beside that, it’s that you can’t do what He did. That’s assuming you’re equal to Jesus. And you know I’m violent about it (Martha laughs). Or volatile I’ll say. But I was reading this morning, it said, “I follow Jesus’ example.” Well, you could take that out, and believe that you could do, you’re supposed to do what He did and follow His example, and you’re supposed to be good and nice and whatever you thought He was. But His example was John 6:30, I believe it is, “I can do nothing out from Myself.” (J) Hmm. (M) That was His example. He could do nothing. We don’t follow that example. I mean, we stumble into it. That’s how I discovered long time ago; I failed my way into the realization that “Christ in you is the hope of glory.” (J) Hmhmm. (M) And, but that is the gospel that is lost. In every stream of Christianity there is legalism. But Jesus’ example was complete reliance on the Father. He said the words I say are the Father’s words; I do not judge, My Father judges, and My Father has given Me the judgment, given Me His judgment. Jesus lived entirely by the Life of the Father. And that is the example, but you have to discover that example, because we cannot possibly imitate Him. We have to be Him; we have to be the vessel of Him. (J) Hmhmm. (M) So, and I have experienced and know that His burden is, is light, and His yoke is easy. Because He does it. (J) Would you say, ‘if you’ll get out of My way and let Me do it, I’ll show you’? (M) Yeah. I said, “Oh Lord, I just want to know You”; He said, “If you’ll get out of My way and let Me live through you, you can watch Me do it inside of you.” (Martha laughs.) I thought He’d be pleased with my question, but He came back with a command. Well, I mentioned keeping the festivals, and keeping the Sabbath, and as I said there’s a great move in Christianity to try to combine. Really what it is, is putting the new wine into old wineskins, and it will burst. (J) Hmhmm. (M) God never intended that. He meant for the law to be our, our schoolmaster to teach us what pleases God. But then when Christ came, when Christ comes into our life we are freed of the law, we are free to obey by the Spirit. But what I want to say is that each of the feasts represents Christ. The Sabbath is Christ Who gave us rest. And we are to live in the Sabbath age, not in a day of the week. Everything that was instigated, every law that was given, every service that was instigated was Him, a picture of Him, about Him, and that He would fulfill every one of those. He is our perpetual feast; unending, hour-by-hour He is our feast. So if you keep a ceremony, you have eliminated Jesus as the Reality of that feast. Is that clear? (J) Hmhmm, hmhmm. (M) For me, I believe that He is everything that the law is. He is everything that God put forth. He is everything that God desires, and the celebration now is of Him, and of His Blood, and His Life. That’s, He is everything. (J) He was the fulfillment of all of His festivals. (M) Yes, He is the celebration; He is the feast. (J) Well, the Pentecost, He is the resurrection Life, He is the sacrifice, He is the Passover Lamb, He is, He is the sacrifice. (M) Yes. (J) So, I mean you know, He fulfills all the feasts. He says, hey, you know something? You’ve been partying about Me for a long time. Here I Am! (Martha and John laugh.) (M) Here is the party.

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